What is the Paleo Diet?

For 2.5 million years, early man foraged and hunted for seafood, meat, vegetables, fruit, nuts, roots and seeds. This period of time before the development of agriculture is known as the Paleolithic era. The Paleo diet is also known as the Stone Age diet, hunter-gathering diet and the caveman diet. No matter what you call our ancestors, some things haven’t changed. Man’s digestive systems have evolved only the slightest amount in the 10,000 years since farming changed our diets. Shortened to Paleo, the modern diet is an approach to nutrition that mimics the early man’s diet for ultimate health.

Our minds are modern, but our bodies and brains still need the same food. Gastroenterologist Walter L. Voegtlin first popularized the Paleo diet in the 1970’s. He argued in, “The Stone Age Diet,” humans as carnivores, chiefly needs fats, proteins and a small amount of carbohydrates for optimum performance. For the last 30 years, obesity has been increasing in the United States. Our modern diets are laden with preservatives, processed sugars, and fried foods. Today’s health crisis has led to a renewed interest in Voegtlin’s tested approach to healthy living.